Concerning my First Book

I must now put forth this mistake—so I can correct it in the future Continue reading →

The Baseline Lesson

There comes a certain point that one must close instead of opening Bring the research to its inevitably incomplete point and Recoil: Sum it up, synthesize what is at hand, conclude.   Otherwise it will go on forever— the search for the perfect baseline can repeat into infinity Continue reading →

die ganze Bibliothek

Do you know how when you work on something you keep pulling books that are, or may be, relevant to what you are thinking about. Pretty soon the whole library will be on my desk. Continue reading →

Julius

One time before the 2004 election I was hanging out with the delightful Julius Schulman at the MAK Center and he was telling everyone how he got a donation solicitation from the Republican party and so then he attached a penny to it with scotch-tape and mailed it back to them in the provided stamped … Continue reading →

Arbeit Monamour

I spend my early teen years swooning over novels, films and the music of genius—soaking in it my existential pain until crisis knocked at 16 and I faced reality. Talented, individualistic and bright enough to admit that I, unfortunately, am not one, I resolved to substitute genius with hard work. Who would have thunk that … Continue reading →

Privilege

As we stood outside the pool in formation in Rumania in 1977 listening to the extremely scary instructor my heart was just racing. Thank god I knew how to swim, the Olympic-sized pool looked cold and enormous. Indeed, sometime in the middle of class my hypothesis was confirmed. With a loud whistle we were all … Continue reading →

Favorite words

Rumanian: katzelush & ayvazut English: bathymetry & gnarly German: genau & doch French: j’suis & pourtant Arabic: ayuni & habibi Hebrew: yalla yalla nudnik Continue reading →

Taming the Beast

Just as I was about to walk out the door my head started to pontificate inside. I caught myself waving a finger at the air and talking out loud. I ran back to the desk to write my thoughts down. Continue reading →

Israel and Gaza

Even a hamster would have learned by now Continue reading →

Consciousness Raising

Before my mom started privately tutoring English we didn’t have very much money, so instead of attending a fancy painting class on the top of the mountain I took the bus to the old part town, where, upon portfolio-based admittance, classes were free at the municipal extra-curricular center. My gifted fellow students were minorities and … Continue reading →